I'm running iCloud for Windows on an older Windows 10 device (Dell XPS, for work, don't judge). For some reason, it has gone haywire, and keeps downloading multiple versions of the same directory, and some of the files from its subdirectories, into my local iCloud Drive directory.
I've decided the best way to resolve this is to delete iCloud for Windows and its local instance from the Dell, delete this directory, and then re-install. My concern is that this might be interpreted by iCloud as me wanting to delete these files from iCloud, and not my local instance. My entire digital life is backed up on iCloud, so losing that data would be catastrophic, which is why I backed it up to the cloud instead of just an external hard drive.
So I've purchased an external hard drive, and I'd like to back up everything from iCloud onto that before uninstalling iCloud for Windows. However, it looks as though my only option may be to download each file individually. I have more than 1TB of files--including my entire music and photo libraries, which are both organized into dozens if not hundreds of subdirectories--backed up to iCloud, so that's not really a possibility. iCloud for Windows doesn't allow you to change the default drive and download all the files.
Is there a way that doesn't involve purchasing third-party software to download an entire iCloud Drive archive to a Windows computer?
I've decided the best way to resolve this is to delete iCloud for Windows and its local instance from the Dell, delete this directory, and then re-install. My concern is that this might be interpreted by iCloud as me wanting to delete these files from iCloud, and not my local instance. My entire digital life is backed up on iCloud, so losing that data would be catastrophic, which is why I backed it up to the cloud instead of just an external hard drive.
So I've purchased an external hard drive, and I'd like to back up everything from iCloud onto that before uninstalling iCloud for Windows. However, it looks as though my only option may be to download each file individually. I have more than 1TB of files--including my entire music and photo libraries, which are both organized into dozens if not hundreds of subdirectories--backed up to iCloud, so that's not really a possibility. iCloud for Windows doesn't allow you to change the default drive and download all the files.
Is there a way that doesn't involve purchasing third-party software to download an entire iCloud Drive archive to a Windows computer?